Well-known activist and social worker, Jolovan Wham has shared that he was stopped for an hour at the Malaysian Immigration yesterday.

Sharing in a Facebook post on Thursday, Wham said that he was told by the Malaysian Immigration that he was placed on the Interpol list.

When asked by TOC, Wham noted that the officer from the Malaysian Immigration did not know what was the reason for the system to prompt an alarm and the officer had to ask him if he knows whether there is any status with him. Only after checking the status that the officer saw that there was an alert for him, on what the officer refers to as a list from the Interpol.

Wham is currently charged by the Attorney General's Chambers for three counts of illegal assembly, three counts of not signing police statements and one count of vandalism for posting two pieces of A4 size paper in a MRT cabin which he later removed.

Given that Wham was let off by the Malaysian authorities to enter Malaysia, the alert is likely to originate from the Singapore government. However, this starts to make no sense when one notes that Wham is allowed to travel out of the country by the Singapore immigration.

Wham commented on his Facebook post, "Who knew free speech and assembly was such a big crime?"

Democracy is best served by having an informed and involved citizenry that has access to a wide range of sources of news and views and an open and vibrant environment in which to share and to debate ideas and opinions.